Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht did not violate judicial ethics when he assisted the Bush administration in its unsuccessful bid to place White House counsel Harriet Miers on the U.S. Supreme Court, a special panel ruled today.

Hecht, 57, who has served as a justice for the Texas Supreme Court since 1989, was admonished by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct because state rules bar Texas judges from lending their office's prestige to endorse candidate for office.

Hecht, who appealed the ruling, insisted he was speaking as a friend, not as a justice when he gave more than 120 interviews on Miers' nomination.